”Gone with the wind” , that’s what could be said about this new mes discus world record with some intention to depreciate it . But the wind has always existed and it is not new to say that it does affect the overall discus performances , sometimes positively sometimes negatively . The experiences in wind tunnel have indeed shown that there could be considerable variations concerning throws over 50m , some 3 to 5m and even more ! ” So a good discus thrower should not be only the one to hit the hardest , but maybe the smartest , or rather , the one able to adapt its technique to the conditions. We cannot think about preventing the wind to blow or try to measure and legislate it like it is done in the sprint events . Therefore , a discus thrower should know very well that he has his ”basic” performance with ”normal” conditions , and may have peaking distance throws depending on the atmospheric circumstances. Anyways , the best thrower will always finish to win at one time or another when everybody faces the same conditions …and this is what really matters !  .

So ,there has been some time since we were expecting Mykolas ALEKNA to break the world record . He has done it an it is just right considering the quality of his technique , of his progression and of his achievements. The Jürgen SCHULT (74.08m in 1986) was symbolic of an era , it has been approached by 20cm by …dad Virgilius ALEKNA (73.88m in 2000) but the ALEKNA’s family (Who also count on a certain Martynas ALEKNA 67.83m in 2023) does follow through on its ideas and fancy on disputing the world record like if it was a family matter.

During this exceptional competition where Mykolas got all his throws over 70m ,  15 competitors made it over 63m !!! , 11 over 65m , 5 over 68m (Among them Connor BELL beating his NZL record with 68.10m) …something unseen before!  All these great people have not finished to settle their dispute and it could well be that this new world record doesn’t have such a long life as this of Jürgen SCHULT !

Available documents :1-PDF 8 pages ALEKNA 74.35m technical analysis  2-PDF 4 pages technical analysis visitors  3-PDF 5 pages   ALEKNA 74.35m in 48 pictures photo sequence   4-Video Mobile photo sequence   (More on the making  :  Video Analysis – Simultaneous videos )